Three days a week

Vernon Small reports:

NZ Post has warned it is likely to need a subsidy from the Government if it cannot get approval to slash mail deliveries from six to three days a week.

It is also signalling a slow down in Kiwibank’s growth after the Government refused to stump up more capital in the near future to support the state-owned bank.

In a letter to Finance Minister Bill English and State Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall, NZ Post chairman Sir Michael Cullen said the organisation’s social obligations, set out in a Deed of Understanding, were being met despite increasing distribution costs and rapidly falling mail volumes.

If proposed changes to the Deed did not go ahead “we will in all probability need to engage with the Crown to discuss funding mechanisms .. for satisfying the social obligations”, Sir Michael said.

The State Owned Enterprises Act states that if the Government wants an enterprise to provide goods or services to anyone, it must enter into an agreement and in return pay for all or part of the cost – in other words a subsidy.

I’d rather my taxes are spent on schools and hospitals than subsidising postal deliveries.

I only check my letter box around once a week anyway.

I suspect in a generation’s time, kids will ask “What was a post office?”.